As we wended our way back to the Alhambra, Mateo was in high glee
and garrulous vein. "Ah, senor," exclaimed he, "there is no place in
all the world like Granada for grand ceremonies (funciones grandes); a
man need spend nothing on pleasure here, it is all furnished him
gratis. Pero, el dia de la Toma! ah, senor! el dia de la Toma!" "But
the day of the Taking! ah, senor, the day of the Taking"- that was the
great day which crowned Mateo's notions of perfect felicity. The Dia
de la Toma, I found, was the anniversary of the capture or taking
possession of Granada, by the army of Ferdinand and Isabella.
On that day, according to Mateo, the whole city is abandoned to
revelry. The great alarm bell on the watchtower of the Alhambra (la
Torre de la vela), sends forth its clanging peals from morn till
night; the sound pervades the whole Vega, and echoes along the
mountains, summoning the peasantry from far and near to the
festivities of the metropolis. "Happy the damsel," says Mateo, "who
can get a chance to ring that bell; it is a charm to insure a
husband within the year."
Throughout the day the Alhambra is thrown open to the public. Its
halls and courts, where the Moorish monarchs once held sway, resound
with the guitar and castanet, and gay groups, in the fanciful
dresses of Andalusia, perform their traditional dances inherited
from the Moors.
A grand procession, emblematic of the taking possession of the city,
moves through the principal streets.
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